Cabinet notes ignore views of other ministries

NEW DELHI: A 50-page handbook on writing notes for the Cabinet and its committees, circulated to all government departments by the Cabinet Secretariat earlier this month identifies three problems in inter-ministerial consultations.

The basic problem is that notes sent to the Cabinet by individual ministries for approval do not reflect the views of other concerned departments. Even where ministries sponsoring a Cabinet note include other departments’ views, these are paraphrased sometimes in a manner that does not correctly reflect the viewpoint of the consulted department,’ the handbook has noted.

The third problem is perhaps the most serious, and possibly reflects inter-ministerial sniping. “The comments of the consulted ministries are brushed aside and counter comments of the sponsoring department provided, which are not based on merit,” notes the handbook, which lays down detailed instructions for inter-ministerial consultations.

The handbook was released on January 7, within a fortnight of another 22-page circular with consolidated instructions for ministries on preparing notes for Cabinet committees and empowered groups of ministers. The circular was issued on December 23, 2010, Thursday, when a scheduled Cabinet meeting was cancelled.

The circular also urged ministries moving Cabinet notes to ensure that views of other departments are ‘faithfully reflected.’ “The comments of the consulted ministry should not be edited or paraphrased in a manner as to alter their connotation and all the comments/conditionalities should be incorporated in the note,” it specifies.

The December circular as well as an independent missive sent around the same time also reiterated a norm put in place by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in UPA’s second innings - ministries must send final Cabinet notes to the PMO at least a week before they are sent to the Cabinet Secretariat.

Instructions have also been issued to ministries to ensure that the PMO’s views are incorporated in the final cabinet note but not attributed to it.

“Has a reference been made to the views of PMO/Cabinet Secretariat in the note? If yes, such references be deleted.

It is clarified that indicating that the note had been sent to PMO is not prohibited and what is prohibited is that no views are attributed to PMO/Cabinet Secretariat in the note,” according to the handbook’s checklist for avoiding common deficiencies in cabinet notes.

However, in cases where the PMO’s views have not been accepted by the ministry moving the Cabinet note, the counter views of the Ministry/Department and PMO views can be mentioned in the forwarding memo.

In his foreword to the handbook, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar writes: “The decisions taken by the Cabinet and Cabinet committees are fundamental to the governance of the country and form the basis of policy formulation as also for evaluating the impact of programmes, policies, plans, projects and schemes of the government. The preparation of correct, accurate and concise Cabinet notes is essential to facilitate decision making at the highest level of government.”